Oregon Coast

We spent three days along the Oregon Coast.  Two of our favorite activities included whale watching and touring the Tillamook cheese factory.  We took a Navy Seal boat out into the ocean in search of gray whales.  Our guide was a marine biologist professor at Oregon University for 30 years and her enthusiasm is contagious.  We learned quite a bit and the kiddos loved riding the boat.  Joel quickly found out he was not meant to be a Marine.  He got really seasick on the boat.  I don't have any good pictures of the whale we followed around, but the scenery was lovely.

The cheese tasting tour at Tillamook was really fun and we learned a lot as well.  

We had lunch there and everyone was fans.  The fried cheese curds with cheesy ranch was definitely the winner.  

Crater Lake

Words fail to describe the beauty that is Crater Lake.  The vivid blue of the lake is out of this world.  You can usually drive the 33 mile rim in the summer, but it's still partially closed because of heavy snow.  We visited Vitae Falls and hiked up to the Phantom Ship lookout, but then we had to turnout to go to the other side of the rim.  It was fun hiking in the snow when it was so warm outside. 

The kiddos had a competition to see how long they could submerge their hand in the cold water of the falls.  Let's just say they didn't last very long.

The Phantom ship is so little and cute from up above.

You can see Wizard Island from a distance.  I was amazed by the fact that there was still ice on the lake in July.

The view of Wizard island at the Watchman overlook was my favorite.  Absolutely stunning!!

The World is an Amazing Place

This trip has really brought home to me how many incredible things there are to see in nature.  We drove to the Northern California seashore at Trinidad State Beach, and it was probably the most beautiful beach we saw our whole trip.  It was a short hike down to the beach with beautiful rock formations.

From there we traveled North on a scenic highway to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park.  To say the trees were magnificent is an understatement.  We hiked a 2.5 mile loop around the trees, and it was so serene and beautiful. 

We said goodbye to the Stuetz clan and continued North for our next adventure.

Lake Day

The highlight of the reunion was a day on Lake Shasta.  We rented a pontoon that was a lot fancier than we expected and tubed the day away.   The little kids went in the morning and then the older kids stayed on the whole rest of the day.  They couldn't get enough of it.  Roberto made it his goal to try and tip them over.  

The boat wore everyone out in the best way.

Little Guy somehow managed to hang on while Little Lady went flying.  He was very proud that he was the only out not to biff it the whole day. 

The dude bros...

We pulled over into a small cove and swam for a little while.

So much fun!